Our good friends who lives next door says enough is enough and they are moving to Florida as soon as they can sell their house . All of us are retired so maybe it's not a bad idea . Not sure which is worse cold and snow or hot and humid with bugs and snakes . I hate snakes .

What's with everybody afraid of snakes? Very few here have ever run across a pit viper, now that's a snake to stay away from. There aren't no snakes in the winters snow except the red headed string tailed white snake I found in my tent once after being visited by a female friend that wanted to keep warm but that's an exception. No wonder someone can make a stupid movie & make money, there's a bunch of scaredy cats here. Snakes are cold blooded creatures.

I've had mine set at 175 degrees for the entire heating season to date. Wonder if its worth bumping it to 180 degrees, or if perhaps I should go a tad higher than that? I only have enough feet of HW baseboards in all of the zones of the house and garage combined to deliver about 77,000 BTU's to the house at 180 degrees going out and 160 degrees returning. The only way I can increase this would be to go higher than 180 degrees. But the heat loss calculations I have ran come in at just about 77,000 BTU's when I use -20 degrees as the design temp (though I now know that the typical design temp criteria for this area is only zero degrees), so it might be OK for me to just leave it at 175. ??? In the end I guess that if the house can't hold 69 degrees I can always crank it up. My 22.7 KW resistance boiler used to struggle a bit to keep up in temps like this, and 22.7 KW is 77,450 BTU's.

Run the appliance as low as you can to maintain dwelling temp - longer circulation times = not herkey jerkey on/off pump cycles = are the key to efficient and comfortable operation

Just FYI Sam - the only way you will freeze and crack a battery is if it is dead. A fully charged battery won't freeze no matter how cold it gets out there. Certainly won't get cold enough in this section of the USA to crack a fully charged battery.

Smitty, my thought was that those small batteries lose a good bit by not being used much, I like to start mine every once in awhile just to keep them charged but for a long period I don't want to spend that time out there. I just hate to buy a new battery every year just to mow the grass.

Al Gore called me today. I immediately tried to talk about Tipper,but all he kept saying was that she needed to be left in the Past. Before I could get another word in edgewise,he advised me that it's no longer being called"Global Warming". It's new snow-job Politically Correct Term is "Climate Change". He said that this Winter has merely been a Statistical Aberration Hiding The Inconvenient Truth. He further insisted that if all you Coal Burning Scum-Bags don't take it and him seriously,next Winter,You'll be seared to Death in higher elevations,and Scalded to Death where the Seas will Rise to overtake you Filthy Capitalistic Swine/Vermin !...Not one to be taken aback from a Whopper like that,i wished him a Holy Day,and then pile-drove it to him and asked about Tipper again. The Ingrate hung up......

This the first real Winter test for you Coal Gun since you've installed it,Larry. We've had relatively Mild Winters for quite some time. Expect to stay warm,and don't sweat feeding "The Beast" ! I think you and that Coal Gun are going to be Best of Friends through this little Cold Snap !